How Do I Find a School That Matches My Interests? (Neuroscience)

[ARPerry]

Howdy! I'm currently looking into graduate schools to apply to. My career goal is to become an academic neuroscience researcher, but my specific interests are rather niche and I am having difficulty finding professors who match my interests well. I am interested in the evolution of distinctly human behaviors such as theory of mind, consciousness, and ability to comprehend reality. However, I am particularly interested in studying why mental illnesses occur that distort these uniquely human cognitive processes. I would like to study the genetic basis of psychological disorders such as anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia that impair one's ability to exercise these uniquely human mental capabilities. I want to study what genetic/neurochemical processes lead to the these mental disorders to better understand what selective pressures led to the development of these capabilities in the first place. 

Does anyone know any schools with professors who study this??? I don't even know what to label it, but I was thinking that maybe researchers looking into primate models may be my best bet?

[CozyD]

A couple general ways to find programs:

- Pull up the top programs in the general field, find the faculty directory, start opening and reading profiles.

- Read articles related to your interests. Look at who is writing them. Look those people up and see if any are faculty at schools with grad programs.

- Go to conferences/events related to your interests and pay attention to who is doing work related to your interests. Talk to them.

[iheartscience]

I'd check out some of the work happening at Stanford. I studied neuroscience there as an undergrad (about 15 years ago) and there were quite a few folks between the Psychology, Biology, and medical departments whose work might be overlapping with your interests. There's also a robust interdisciplinary program called "Symbolic Systems" that lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics -- some of what you mention seems like it might fit there. I took a "Philosophy of Neuroscience" course through SymSys as an undergraduate and it touched a lot of the topics you list here. They have a Master's program in SymSys, but all the faculty are cross listed in other departments, so I might look at the SymSys faculty page as a starting point. I worked with Brian Knutson and he's fantastic -- as a person, mentor, and scientist. Jamil Zaki joined the faculty after I graduated, but his work is super interesting and might be adjacent to your interests.  

I'd recommend poking around the research interests of current faculty and reaching out to whomever seems like they may have overlapping interests. https://symsys.stanford.edu/undergraduatesconcentrations/neurosciences-neuro-concentration 

From the SymSys class I took, I remember a couple faculty from UCSD (the Churchlands) did work in the area you describe but I think they are retired now --- but it looks like the UCSD Philosophy department has several other folks interested in theory of mind/cognitive science overlap, which might be another avenue to look: https://philosophy.ucsd.edu/people/faculty.html 

For any program you apply to, there may not be a specific professor doing exactly the work you are imagining, but if there are many professors doing relevant work and working with relevant methodologies, you'd have the intellectual resources and support to chart out your own research. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by iheartscience

[PsyDuck90]

I agree with CozyD's suggestions above. I think finding recent articles relevant to your interests and looking up those authors is an especially good starting point. Also, given your interests, I would not be surprised if many people with those interests were in clinical psychology departments with an emphasis on neuropsych research. 

[dopamine_machine]

6 hours ago, ARPerry said:

Howdy! I'm currently looking into graduate schools to apply to. My career goal is to become an academic neuroscience researcher, but my specific interests are rather niche and I am having difficulty finding professors who match my interests well. I am interested in the evolution of distinctly human behaviors such as theory of mind, consciousness, and ability to comprehend reality. However, I am particularly interested in studying why mental illnesses occur that distort these uniquely human cognitive processes. I would like to study the genetic basis of psychological disorders such as anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia that impair one's ability to exercise these uniquely human mental capabilities. I want to study what genetic/neurochemical processes lead to the these mental disorders to better understand what selective pressures led to the development of these capabilities in the first place. 

Does anyone know any schools with professors who study this??? I don't even know what to label it, but I was thinking that maybe researchers looking into primate models may be my best bet?

I agree with CozyD, I think that there are a few ways that you could go about performing your search.  We actually have very similar research interests, though mine are less focused on distorted cognitive function and more so on the genetic profile that leads to psychiatric disorders.  While checking through the faculty at each school's web site has proven to be somewhat helpful, I have actually found that googling papers you are interested in and tracing authors/PIs back to specific institutions has been much more efficient and rewarding.  Professor profiles on college websites can sometimes be misleading at first glance and by reading their papers, you can learn exactly what they are currently investigating instead of what they have done in the past.

[ARPerry]

15 hours ago, iheartscience said:

I'd check out some of the work happening at Stanford. I studied neuroscience there as an undergrad (about 15 years ago) and there were quite a few folks between the Psychology, Biology, and medical departments whose work might be overlapping with your interests. There's also a robust interdisciplinary program called "Symbolic Systems" that lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics -- some of what you mention seems like it might fit there. I took a "Philosophy of Neuroscience" course through SymSys as an undergraduate and it touched a lot of the topics you list here. They have a Master's program in SymSys, but all the faculty are cross listed in other departments, so I might look at the SymSys faculty page as a starting point. I worked with Brian Knutson and he's fantastic -- as a person, mentor, and scientist. Jamil Zaki joined the faculty after I graduated, but his work is super interesting and might be adjacent to your interests.  

I'd recommend poking around the research interests of current faculty and reaching out to whomever seems like they may have overlapping interests. https://symsys.stanford.edu/undergraduatesconcentrations/neurosciences-neuro-concentration 

From the SymSys class I took, I remember a couple faculty from UCSD (the Churchlands) did work in the area you describe but I think they are retired now --- but it looks like the UCSD Philosophy department has several other folks interested in theory of mind/cognitive science overlap, which might be another avenue to look: https://philosophy.ucsd.edu/people/faculty.html 

For any program you apply to, there may not be a specific professor doing exactly the work you are imagining, but if there are many professors doing relevant work and working with relevant methodologies, you'd have the intellectual resources and support to chart out your own research. 

Thank you so much!!! I had NO clue this existed - Symbolic Systems sounds amazing!